Current pain and headache reports
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Headache is a frequent symptom in women of childbearing age and during pregnancy. Benign and pathologic headaches may change in response to changes in estrogen after conception. Expected patterns of change are described for headaches that occur commonly during pregnancy. In addition, although treatment options are limited during pregnancy, a variety of effective medication and nonmedication treatments are available and should be offered to women with benign headaches that persist into the second trimester of pregnancy.
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The relationship between sleep and sleep disorders and headache remains unclear. Clinical experience and numerous studies document some sort of relationship, but the exact nature remains understudied and complex. Changes in sleep duration and sleep quality appear to be capable of affecting headaches of different types. ⋯ Obstructive sleep apnea also may cause a specific headache when awakening, which is different from migraine or tension headache and disappears after treatment of the sleep and breathing disturbance. Hypnic headache is another type of sleep-exclusive headache that has been proposed. Hypnic headaches are brief, moderately severe, and affect the elderly primarily.
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Temporal arteritis was first described in the late nineteenth century. Despite considerable progress in understanding the disease, its rarity in the young and in those who are not of Scandinavian ethnicity remains unexplained. ⋯ Although steroids remain the drug of choice, the use of other immunologic therapies has been proposed. This paper reviews the disease's history, probable etiologies, clinical manifestations, and its diagnostic and treatment challenges.